San Francisco Bay Area

Back in April, I had blogged that Ro Khanna was running again (he first ran in 2014) against Congressman Mike Honda for California’s 17th Congressional District. Since then, I haven’t really been following that election except to see whether or not they both won and made it through the primary (since California has an open primary – the two top vote-getters make it to the general election – so it’s a Democrat vs. Democrat in November). […] Continue »

Although I had seen California State Treasury John Chiang several times during the week at the Democratic National Convention, I hadn’t had a chance to do an interview. On Day 4 at the California Delegates Breakfast, I finally did, though only briefly, to get his thoughts on the Convention as well as his run for Governor of California in 2018. Yes, that’s right. I don’t think I’ve had the chance to blog Chiang’s announcement, but back […] Continue »

If you follow or cover San Francisco politics, especially regarding Asian Americans, Chinese Americans or Chinatown, you’ll inevitably here the name Rose Pak. Pak passed away of natural causes at age 68 at home on Sunday, September 18th. Her life, as summarized by the San Francisco Chronicle: “Calling Ms. Pak, a native of Hunan, China, who moved to San Francisco in 1967, an activist or community advocate doesn’t begin to describe her decades-long role in turning […] Continue »

The term “Asian American” talks about the interaction of two sets of ideas, customs, and traditions, Asian and American. To me, one of the most fascinating instances of this are when two ordinarily distinct notions of Asian and American get mashed up together into something unique, like spam musubi or Korean Taco trucks. Food isn’t the only area where happens – KQED published this story about how an Indian American musician blends Chicago style Blues […] Continue »

A survey conducted by New America Media shows that people of color do care about the preservation of public lands. This is confirmed by the fact that Fremont’s Mission Peak is a favorite place for Asian Americans to hike, and its popularity is causing problems. The city of Fremont has decided to place restrictions on parking, leaving certain areas of the neighborhood near the Stanford Avenue trail head available for parking only by residents on […] Continue »

In the local Silicon Valley newspaper, The San Jose Mercury News recently did an interview with Priscilla Chan. She’s most well known for being the wife of founder & CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and she rarely gives interviews. In this particular interview, Chan talks about how her personal story and background has helped shaped the her and Zuckerberg’s donations to schools and hospitals. I was kind of surprised to learn about Chan’s background, and just assumed she […] Continue »

I work in Silicon Valley and in the “tech” industry and one of the hottest topics this past year, especially with the commercial release of the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive in April, is Virtual Reality. I happened to attend the 3rd annual Silicon Valley Virtual Reality (SVVR) Conference & Expo in San Jose, California this past April and attended a few sessions. One of a lot of interest to me was a session on […] Continue »

When I was looking through the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival guide online, I came across a screening for the film that I had heard about, The Man Who Knew Infinity, described here: “For writer-director Matthew Brown, it has been a long, twisting road bringing “The Man Who Knew Infinity,” a drama based on the short life of mathematician Srinavasa Ramanujan and his friendship with a Cambridge professor, to the screen. In 2004, he […] Continue »

The only Chinatown I remember growing up was Oakland Chinatown. When my family first came to the Bay Area, we lived in the East Bay, and Oakland Chinatown was the nearest place my parents could get Filipino vegetables and other Asian groceries. For a long time, the nearest dim sum restaurant was in Oakland Chinatown, and when I was a grad student at Berkeley, I did volunteer work there – just a quick BART ride […] Continue »

Ever since I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and tried a Din Tai Fung (DTF), I’ve wanted one in the Bay Area. Din Tai Fung opened today – Tuesday, May 10th at 11:00 AM PST – and I was there to catch the grand opening. For a while, the only Din Tai Fung in the United States was in Los Angeles – Arcadia, California to be exact. The that location expanded with another restaurant adjacent […] Continue »

My schedule rarely allows me to read entire books, but after I read about Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air, a New York Times bestseller, I decided that I would actually buy and read it. While Kalanithi didn’t focus his book on Asian Americans, much of his book is interesting from an Asian American standpoint. I strongly recommend it. Spoilers ahead (although most people who plan to read the book already know what happens in the […] Continue »

Full disclosure: I’m a friend and have a lot of mutual friends with Jane Kim, and know her initially through a former 8Asians blogger (who used to be roommates with her). I think I may have donated to some of her past campaigns as well (though I generally don’t for people I can’t vote for). I’ve blogged about Jane before, and attended her campaign kickoff when she first ran for San Francisco District 6 city supervisor […] Continue »